Ethiopia’s September 9 forex auction draws bids $5 million below supply
All 20 participating banks made successful bids in Ethiopia’s September 9, 2026 foreign-exchange auction, but demand was $5 million below the $125 million offered, Ethiopian reports said.
In short
- All 20 participating banks made successful bids in Ethiopia’s September 9, 2026 foreign-exchange auction, but demand was $5 million below the $125 million offered, Ethiopian reports said.
Ethiopia’s latest foreign-exchange auction drew bids below the amount offered, with the weighted average bid reaching 160.53 birr per US dollar, The Reporter reported on September 10, 2026.
The National Bank of Ethiopia held the auction on September 9. It offered $125 million, and all 20 participating commercial banks made successful bids, according to the newspaper. Demand fell $5 million short of the amount available.
Ethiopian Business Review separately reported $120 million in bids and allocations, corroborating the shortfall and the number of successful banks. Its account put the weighted average at 160.5357 birr per dollar. The lowest bid was 158.35 birr per dollar, a figure also reported by The Reporter.
The auction was the central bank’s 28th since it began foreign-currency sales to commercial banks in August 2024. These sales form part of Ethiopia’s foreign-exchange reform programme. The result describes bidding in this particular central-bank auction; it does not establish the retail exchange rate available to individual customers.
The Reporter said the next auction would follow the central bank’s announced schedule.
